220 University Geological Survey of Kansas. 
Congress and different rulings of the Interior Department 
have matters in such a shape that to the ordinary mind they 
are very confusing, and, as a result, capitalists prefer to re- 
main away rather than jeopardize their holdings by insecure 
titles. 
In Kansas, however, factories are on the increase so rapidly 
that the best judges are becoming alarmed lest the gas should 
become entirely exhausted. A number of zine smelters in the 
state have enlarged their capacity and Portland cement plants 
-have increased in number and in size. Five such plants are 
now in operation, consuming from forty to fifty million cubic 
feet of gas per day, and two or three others are in contempla- 
tion. | 
Gas-wells near the southern end of Kansas and those in the 
Cherokee Nation generally are very large. A well from ten to 
fifteen million cubic feet per day is nothing unusual and some 
of them run up to thirty or forty million. The somewhat 
famous well in the Cherokee Nation which caught fire in the 
spring of 1906 and burned for several weeks was estimated at 
thirty million cubic feet before the gas was ignited, and before 
it was completely closed it was estimated at sixty million cubic 
feet capacity, although no accurate measurements were made. 
In the outlying borders, however, wells average much less, and 
some of them are even less than one million cubic feet. 
Gas Markets.—The price of gas for domestic consumption 
along all of the long pipe-lines is twenty-five cents per 1000 
cubic feet, meter rates. The Kansas Natural Gas Company is 
offering gas to large factories at ten cents a thousand, but this: 
is generally considered higher than coal, and as a result but 
little coal has been driven out of the factories. In the gas-fields 
a number of the towns and cities still pay the same flat rates 
they did years ago—that is, from ten to fifteen cents each for 
lights per month and from one dollar to two dollars each for 
stoves. Also, a number of the factories, such as the glass fac- 
tory at Coffeyville, the brick-kilns at Coffeyville, Independence, 
Syeamore, etc., get gas at the old rates of three cents per 
thousand. But no new contracts on this basis are sought for 
by the gas companies. Occasionally parties owning gas will 
make such contracts for factories or for large consumers. It 
must be said, however, that all indications are that the day of 
cheap gas for large factories in this territory is almost past. 
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